Reality is an Illusion Created by Lack of Alcohol
by Eva Connelly
Summary: Eva and her best friend Holly met the renowned band roughly a year ago and now share residence with them on the bus. But what happens when time apart combined with a heck of a lot of alcohol takes a hold of one of the members? ...


This is how the band looks in this story x3

**Reality is an Illusion Created by Lack of Alcohol**

_Morning Routine_

Eva squinted, scrunching her face as she raised a hand to her forehead to block the blaring morning rays of the sun, seeping in through the window. Groggily, she reached out she grabbed hold of the purple, hanging curtain of her bunk and yanked it across viciously before letting her arm flop back down onto the mattress. A sudden movement beside her made the girl jump and sit up in alarm, almost smashing her head into the bunk above, until she realised that she was not in her own bunk, and was not alone either.

Lying beside her, eyes still closed peacefully lay her boyfriend, Ryan, with his arm strewn over her waist, locking her in position should she fall off the edge of the bed built for only one. Eva smiled remembering how she had creeped down the tiny, cold metal ladder in the middle of the night into Ryan's bunk and crawled in with him complaining it was too cold by herself. He had been half asleep at the time but made no objection to the visitor and pulled her into his warm torso, keeping a protective arm round her before drifting back off into dream world.

Eva wriggled in his grip until she was facing him, their noses only inches apart as she quickly snapped her eyes shut when she saw his flicker open tiredly. Pretending to be fast asleep still, Eva tried her utmost hardest not to laugh, resisting the urge to bite her lip. She could hear the smile through Ryan's soft sigh as she felt a pair of soft lips gently brush against her nose before the pillow ruffled once more signalling the descent of a head.

Slowly opening one eye, Eva saw Ryan still once more, except for his steadily rising and falling chest. Smiling triumphantly she was about to snuggle up and go back to sleep when a though suddenly hit her: it was her day to cook breakfast.

"Dammit" she whispered, not wanting to disturb Ryan as she ever so carefully removed his arm from her waist and let her legs fall over the side of the bunk, slipping away without a sound. Breathing a sigh of relief once she was up she trudged across the somewhat untidy bus towards the tiny kitchen, evading some magazines and empty beer cans as she went.

Fifteen minutes later the mouth-watering scent of fresh bacon (vegetarian for Eva and Brendon) and eggs drifted along the bus, though still not enough to wake the four sleeping recipicents. Dropping her wooden spoon she left the bacon to sizzle away as she walked down the poky corridor between bunks and slowly made her way up the shaky metal ladder to Spencer's bunk. Not only did the residents of the bus take turns to cook, they also took turns to wake one another up, otherwise they'd be here until one pm everyday.

"Spence, Spencer" Eva gently placed her hand upon the mound of duvet shaking slightly but getting no response. Rolling her eyes she clambered into the bunk and lay down next to the lump using both hands this time to shake Spencer awake.

"Spence c'mon get up breakfast's nearly done" the blanket fortress was still for a moment before stirring slightly as a head of messy light brown hair poked out with a clammy groan. Eva smiled as a pair of bright blue orbs turned to face her, half lidded and unamused.

"Morning" she grinned annoyingly and Spencer only reached out to poke her forehead gentle before collapsing again like he'd just run a hundred mile race. Eva took the hint and began to flounder down the steps once more muttering something like 'be up in two minutes' and being answered with another groan.

Jon next, he was usually easier than Spencer, less cranky. Probably because he tended to drink the most on previous nights so had a good, deep sleep but not enough to wake up with a hangover usually. Jon's bunk was under Spencer's so she had to bend down, avoiding banging her head on that confounded ladder as she did. Jon was breathing heavily, not snoring as such, but emitting noise none the less

"Jon, Jwalker hello" no response but the heavy breathing died down

"Jon food's nearly ready" before Eva had even finished uttering that last word Jon's eyes instantly snapped open as his head flew up from the pillow beaming at her has he began to sniff the air

"Food? I'm up" Eva laughed as she backed up letting Jon throw back his covers and practically leap out of the bed heading for the bathroom shouting over his shoulder

"Give me five minutes, don't serve without me!" before slamming the bathroom door

"Flipping hell what was that?" a groggy voice sounded from behind her as Eva whirled round to see Ryan's head poking out from behind the curtain, yawning and rubbing his beautiful chestnut eyes tiredly. Smiling she walked over and gave him a quick but tender kiss brushing his fringe off his face

"Jon heard the word 'food'" she explained chuckling again as Ryan rolled his eyes in acknowledgement tossing back the duvet and stretching on the edge of the bed. Eva couldn't help but stare at him, he was so gorgeous, even with seven hours of sleep hanging over him. Realising what she was doing she quickly turned and busied herself with picking up various strange objects such as a monopoly piece and a pack of cards strewn across the floor. The girl took a sharp intake of breath as she felt two arms slowly slide around her from behind and a warm chin rest upon her shoulder.

Dropping the objects Eva closed her eyes contently as Ryan's arms wrapped around her, engulfing her like a soft mist on a winters day. Lovingly, he kissed her shoulder as she lent her head to the side to give him better access. He was just about to move up to her neck when the bathroom door suddenly swung open making yet another noisy bang that shook the entire bus

"Alright breakfast here I come!" Jon raced over to the snapping and popping pan to begin dishing up his breakfast as Eva and Ryan only looked at each other and sniggered quietly.

"I'm gonna go have a shower" Ryan gave her one last kiss before reluctantly walking away to the bathroom. Eva watched him go for a second smiling like a little three year old girl who had just been told she was pretty, once the lock clicked she turned around and looked up dreadingly.

"And now the real task" she said to herself

Walking over to the bunks nearest the door of the bus she once again manoeuvred her way up the metal ladder and upon reaching it's peak saw a motionless mound, tangled up in the quilts and sheets with a head full of brilliant jet black hair smothered in the pillow. Eva sighed, gently placing her hand where she believed Brendon's back to be and shaking him lightly

"Bren? Bren it's half ten and breakfast's done"

No response, not even a twitch or a groan.

"You'd better hurry up before Jon eats it all" Eva chuckled hoping this would earn some sort of reply, but to no avail. A sympathetic expression crossed her face as she carefully squeezed in beside Brendon running her hand through his hair softly. Ever since Holly had left three days ago Brendon had hardly said a word to anyone, it wasn't natural. He was usually so lively and happy-go-lucky, jumping around the bus like there was no tomorrow. It was so strange to see him so fed up and pining like this, everyone missed Holly but noone felt it nearly as much as him.

Since Eva and her best friend Holly were from England and met the band when they came to see them play in Chicago about a year ago, they often had to make frequent trips home to see their families and catch up on everything they had missed back home. And when they were gone they missed the band terribly, just as they missed the girls, especially Ryan and Brendon. This just happened to be Holly's grandad's birthday so she had had to go home for a party they were holding for him, Brendon would have gone but they had an important interview this week, today in fact, that they couldn't miss. Ever since she left he'd just been moping, centering around three activities: sleeping, listening to music and clinging onto one of the other members like a magnet. Sometimes he'd sit there for hours and none of the other four had the heart to tell him to move, so they just let him sit with them, holding him and trying as best they could to ease his suffering. After which he just managed a half smile or a quick nod before disappearing again into the confines of his bunk.

Eventually, a muffled groan sounded from inside the pillow as a pair of tired brown eyes turned to face Eva. She smiled softly, worried he hadn't gotten any sleep at all, his eyes looked puffy and scarlet streaked.

"Hey" she breathed as he simply blinked in response

"I'll leave you to get up" she smiled, stroking his cheek with her thumb before wriggling down to the end of the bed and struggling down the ladder once more. Once she was on hard floor again, she glanced over at the kitchen to see Jon already stuffing his face full of the brekfast she had cooked. Rolling her eyes, she went over and was about to take a seat next to him to grab some food before it was all hoovered up when Ryan's voice sounded from the bathroom

"Evie? I forgot my towel can you give it to me please"

Eva and Jon looked at each other and she waggled her finger at him warningly, muttering

"Don't eat all of it"

Jon simply stuck his tongue out returning to his overflowing plate as Eva turned and tugged out Ryan's light blue towel from under his pillow. She chuckled seeing as how his was the only towel out of all of theirs, including hers, which was folded and tucked nicely under his pillow. Hers was stuffed carelessly down the side of her mattress, Spencer's was the same, Jon's was hanging over the end of his bed and fell on the floor frequently and Brendon's was somewhere in amongst his quilt. Holly and Ryan were the tidy ones on the bus, the other four were hopeless.

Knocking three times on the door, Eva was answered by a 'it's unlocked' and slowly opened the door to be met by a fog of white steam. Swatting her hand in front of her face she closed and locked the door behind her following the sound of running water to the shower. The curtain was drawn but it was only plastic so she could see the magnificent silhouette of Ryan behind it, God she was sure it was a sin how gorgeous he was.

"Ry? Here's your towel" she called out holding it out in front of her, she saw Ryan's hand move over to grab the end of the curtain and slide it back just enough for his dripping wet head to poke out.

"Thankyou" he smiled reaching out to grab what Eva presumed was the towel but instead he placed a firm grip on her wrist and almost lifted her off her feet, pulling her in with him. She squeaked in shock dropping the towel to the floor and she was urgently thrown against the shower wall with a pair of lips crashing down against her own. She could barely see Ryan at all, despite the fact he was less than an inch in front of her, due to the thick cloud of all the fangirls prowling around outside the band couldn't risk having windows in their titchy bathroom, if you could even call it that.

Eva kissed him back passionately, grabbing fistfuls of his hair and rubbing her knee against his thigh. Ryan broke the enchanting moment and kissed along her cheek to her neck, licking it tenderly before nipping at it just above her collarbone. Eva bit her lip to stifle a sigh, she knew that even with the thundering shower the others would quite easily hear them if they weren't careful. Hungrily, her hands explored his beautiful body, running over every curve, tracing imaginary patterns on his moist skin. Although he was fairly skinny, Ryan had surprisingly strong arms, fierce muscles rippled through them as they pinned Eva to the wall firmly holding her in place as he leaned in towards her body.

Until now Eva had been so caught up in the moment that she almost hadn't noticed Ryan was naked. Smirking, she slid her hand slowly down to his waist, Ryan knew what she was going to do and bit his lip, smiling in anticipation. Teasingly, she ran two fingers over his fully hard manhood as he moaned quietly into her shoulder. Sliding under the end of her soaked t-shirt, Ryan's hands found their way to the clasp of her white bra, attempting to unhook it but finding it hard to concentrate with all the attention he was getting down south. All of a sudden an impatient knocking on the door made both of them gasp and grab hold of each other in alarm.

"Sorry guys I hate to interrupt you, _believe me_" Eva could hear Spencer cringe through his voice

"But I have to pee and Jon's eaten almost everything so you'd better get out here"

Eva looked over at Ryan who was shooting a death-glare at Spencer through the door and couldn't help but chuckle. Realising him from her grip he whimpered as she leant forward whispering

"We'll make up for it later" she promised giving him one final lust-filled kiss before pulling back the curtain and stepping out of the shower. Ryan pouted before reluctantly turning off the water and doing the same, wrapping his towel around his waist.

"I'll hold you to that" he breathed into her ear, walking towards the door. Pulling it open Ryan swiftly scooted over to his bunk, hopped inside and drew the curtains. He was a very private guy and didn't like being shirtless even in front of his bandmates. Eva followed suit, walking out in a less urgent mannor as Spencer raised one eyebrow as she emerged fully dressed yet soaking wet.

"I don't wanna know" he breathed as Eva shot him a confused expression as he leaned in an awkward position against the doorframe

"Don't you have to pee?"

"That's why I'm standing like this" Spencer retorted before slipping into the bathroom sharpish

Eva looked over at the breakfast table to see Jon leaning back in his chair looking very pleased with himself and an empty plate in front of him

"You ate it _all_?!" she gawked at him, mouth hanging open in shock and slight disgust that one man could eat a meal made for five people in the course of about half an hour

"New record" Jon smirked before he scanned down Eva curiously "Is it raining?" Eva tossed a cushion at him for being cheeky, he knew exactly what she and Ryan had been up to thanks to the damn paper thin walls

A short while later Spencer had made some pancakes (which Jon was forbidden to eat) and everyone was up and dressed...except Brendon.

"Is he still not up yet? I called him about an hour ago" Eva glanced worriedly up at his bunk as Ryan put down his fork and went to investigate.

"Bren? Brendon you ok?" no answer. He grabbed hold of the metal and climbed up the steps as the others went back to what they were doing, until Ryan's slow and uneasy voice caused them all to stop

"He's gone"


End file.
